James Houle: Costco Urban Decay Report…

The ALH Urban & Regional Economics Analysis prepared last August by Environmental Science Associates, Inc. does a very inadequate job of characterizing the sales impacts of the proposed Costco Store upon retail food and beverage businesses in the Ukiah Market Area. Of all commercial sectors, ALH believes the food and beverages sector will be impacted most severely. There are a total of 26 groceries and supermarkets stretching from the Hopland to Willits and eastward to Lake County that ALH identifies as likely to experience some impact upon their sales volumes. Of these, seven are quite large including 2 Safeways (Ukiah and Willits), 2 Grocery Outlet Stores (Ukiah and Lakeport), Lucky (Ukiah), Raleys (Ukiah), and Food Maxx (Ukiah). ALH says there is “a potential for one of these larger supermarkets to close” and that large scale vacancies may occur amongst amongst the nineteen smaller neighborhood groceries (they describe these as discount stores, conventional stores, niche markets, and ethnic oriented stores). They are not troubled by this impact upon smaller groceries and do not even bother to estimate the number likely to close.

They then assure the reader that these smaller volume enterprises won’t “cause substantial hardship to the commercial marketplace” while giving no evidence to support this rosy conclusion. Urban Decay is stated to be the most severe impact that closures can have upon the marketplace and since ALH sees little probability of vandalism., graffiti, loitering, or deterioration of structures, they do not appear the least bit worried about a downward spiral of business closures. “There is limited evidence to suggest that closed store spaces will exhibit traditional signs of deterioration and decay”, they assure us.

The City Council has expressed fear of “Urban Sprawl” and feels that large out-of-town big box superstores will somehow contain and inhibit this sprawl. But when single family zoning forces residents to be dependent upon autos to reach shopping malls where big box enterprises are sequestered, and to drive a considerable distance to schools, health and government services, we find ourselves 100% reliant upon our cars. Those families unable to afford 1 much less 2 cars are very isolated. The Redwood Business Park is a fine example for pedestrians: lacking adequate sidewalks for walking shoppers, unreliable bus service, and separated ¾ to 1 mile from high density moderate income neighborhoods, a distance that ALH feels is much too far to walk, even if there were sidewalks. When Costco shuts down many of these smaller neighborhood groceries that have served the poorer neighborhoods along North and South States Street, the sense of isolation will be complete and the opportunities for vacant store fronts and urban decay will be enhanced. Surely the type of myopic urban planning that ALH has produced must be rejected…

Like the Willits Bypass, this sort of ill-advised project is what we get when our ‘leaders’ are so mesmerized by the scene in the rear-view mirror they fail to see where we are actually headed. And exactly when did 3/4 of a mile become “much too far to walk”?

You take away politics, take away whether you think trickle-down [economics] works, take away even what you think about race. Just look at this community. Are the families healthy and thriving? No? Okay. It's not resilient.

The agency's assessment of fracking fluid disclosure is part of its broader study on fracking and water—and spotlights the project's limitations.By Neela Banerjee Oil and gas companies refuse to disclose 10 percent of the hundreds of chemicals they use during hydraulic fracturing, according to a new analysis by the Environmental Protection Agency. […]

Two scientists from Columbia University launch a $40,000 pilot testing project in Pennsylvania they hope will lead to full-scale research.By David Hasemyer Frank Varano knows what's coming. His land near Williamsport, Pa., abuts property that has been leased for gas exploration––and he's certain it will be fracked. What is less certain is how that […]

If a new rule takes effect, about 95 percent of all pipelines would be subject to stricter safety testing because of their age, location and other factors.By Elizabeth Douglass It's been two years since a broken 1940s ExxonMobil pipeline flooded an Arkansas neighborhood with Canada's heaviest oil, and the ripple effects of the spill have made it to […]

(Reuters)The United States will submit plans for slowing global warming to the United Nations early this week but most governments will miss an informal March 31 deadline, complicating work on a global climate deal due in December. The U.S. submission, on Monday or Tuesday according to a White House official, adds to national strategies beyond 2020 already p […]

In September of 2012, Adrian Bayley raped and murdered 29-year-old Jill Meagher (below), receiving a life conviction for the crime. Also appalling is how Bayley had over twenty rape convictions to his name before being put away for good this time. Reacting to the story, one Catholic priest, Father Joseph Olickal, reportedly took the opportunity to opine that […]

On March 2, motivational speaker Bob Lenz gave a presentation at Iron Mountain High School in Michigan... which might have been okay until he used the opportunity to promote an event he was hosting at a local church later that evening. This is the flyer he gave to students:And how did that evening event go? Well, he boasted about his conversions-to-Jesus aft […]

Gordon Klingenschmitt, the fundamentalist Christian and Colorado lawmaker, is finally getting a sort of punishment following his comments last week that the brutal attack of a pregnant woman occurred because we allow legal abortions in this country.He has now been pulled from one of the two committees on which he served:

Small is beautiful, when small is skilled and dedicated. ~Gene Logsdon→

I've observed that people tend to live at one of two extremes in the spectrum of life: those who live on the edge, and those who avoid the edge. Those who live on the edge are hanging out in the most dangerous and unstable places — yet they're also often the most powerful agents of change, because the edge is where change is happening; away from the edge, things are naturally unchanging. ~Thom Hartmann

All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume. ~Noam Chomsky

Transition Tools (Basic)

Stoics/Freethought

Local Organic Family Farms

THE SMALL ORGANIC FARM greatly discomforts the corporate/ industrial mind because the small organic farm is one of the most relentlessly subversive forces on the planet. Over centuries both the communist and the capitalist systems have tried to destroy small farms because small farmers are a threat to the consolidation of absolute power.

Thomas Jefferson said he didn’t think we could have democracy unless at least 20% of the population was self-supporting on small farms so they were independent enough to be able to tell an oppressive government to stuff it.

It is very difficult to control people who can create products without purchasing inputs from the system, who can market their products directly thus avoiding the involvement of mercenary middlemen, who can butcher animals and preserve foods without reliance on industrial conglomerates, and who can’t be bullied because they can feed their own faces. ~Eliot Coleman